Hold On and Hold Me
by pickedallmyweeds
Summary: Kate and Rick are forced to weather a storm that they could never have forecasted. [AU set S6 with an engaged Caskett]
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note: All the usual disclaimers that Castle does not belong to myself in any way whatsoever. This is an AU fic set somewhere between late S6-ish with an engaged Caskett. Thanks for reading._

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A horrific crash had turned many of the roads between Kate's location and the 12th Precinct into a glorified parking lot. Kevin and Javier were doing their best to make their way over to her but the effect of the fatal chain of collisions triggered by a garbage truck ploughing into the side of a coach, was unprecedented, something that the borough had never seen before. Tired commuters sought alternate routes via side streets, which quickly became congested when others caught onto the notion that it may be quicker. A flashing gumball only helped when there was space for other cars to move into – her partners were still, at best, ten minutes away. Kate Beckett couldn't wait that long.

She had been making her way back to the precinct when she received a call that Kip Armstrong was home. Armstrong was a person of interest in a murder case from a few months ago that had gone cold.

'This is Detective Kate Beckett. Badge number 41319. Do you have an update on my request for back-up?' Kate said into her car's police radio.

There was a delay of a few seconds before there was a crackle and then a response. 'ETA is five minutes. Sorry Detective Beckett.' The original ETA had been ten minutes and that had been ten minutes ago.

'Not your fault dispatch. Thank you.' She hung up the two-way handset and sighed. Usually, her husband-to-be would be sitting in the passenger seat beside her and usually, whether she liked it or not, he would don that ridiculous 'WRITER' emblazoned Kevlar vest and he would be her back-up. Sometimes she would even go as far as handing him her back-up piece. Right now, Richard Castle was in his office writing – or supposed to be, at least – to meet a deadline that already had to have been pushed back twice. She did not have the luxury of having him by her side and she would be damned if she had to wait any longer to get her hands on the next _Nikki Heat_ book.

Her finger scrolled through the contacts on her phone, stopping at Javier Esposito's number. It hovered over the call option as she weighed up whether to ring for a third time. Then she heard a door swinging shut. She looked up from her phone and looked straight ahead, making direct eye contact with the paranoid son-of-bitch. _Armstrong._

Kip Armstrong held her gaze for a beat and that beat was all it took for him to remember her from their brief encounter a few hours after Molly Austin's body was discovered. Back then he had been a supposedly grieving boyfriend; right now he was Kate Beckett's number one suspect and he was fleeing.

'NYPD!' She wasn't even going to ask him to stop – that would be as futile as it was to call out that she was a cop.

He gained another few seconds on her as she fumbled to get out of her car but he was an amateur at this. Kate had run races like this for past ten years of her life and she was already closing the distance the second her feet touched the pavement. He took a sharp right, leaving her view momentarily but failed to capitalize and was back in her sight as soon as she rounded the corner. The streets, unlike the roads, were thankfully relatively empty. Armstrong kept pushing but Kate kept pushing harder and she made out the make of his sneakers before he took another right turn.

As she made the turn too, she saw the flash of brick ahead of her signaling a dead end and signaling her to draw her gun. Glock drawn, her eyes scanned for a target.

Armstrong launched himself at her before she spotted him hiding behind a rusting dumpster. He went headfirst into her stomach before she time to react, sending her to the concrete. She couldn't breathe as her nails scratched the ground in search of her fallen Glock. Armstrong kept up the offensive with a fist to her face as he scrambled to his feet. He kicked her twice in the ribs, delivered another blow to her stomach before he turned, all set on leaving her there until she grabbed his ankle.

This wasn't over yet.

The ankle grab didn't ground him but it knocked him off balance and gave her an extra second to regroup and draw her back-up weapon. 'Try me.' _Now it was over_.

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It was late evening – the back of eight, to be precise – when she finally slid her key into the door of the apartment she shared with her fiancé. After uniforms had hauled Armstrong off to a holding cell in the 12th, she had been herself hauled off to the nearest hospital. An inconvenience, yes, but unfortunately a necessity with the cut she had received above her left eye needing stitches to close it. Then it was back to the precinct to sit down with the son of a bitch who tried to play her ribs like a xylophone.

Kip Armstrong confessed to the murder of his girlfriend and Kate could finally go home to her love who she had no intention of ever harming, even though she joked about it constantly.

'Look who's-.' The writer didn't finish his sentence as he looked up from his laptop and saw her slightly swollen temple and the very noticeable stitches. He was out of his desk chair. 'What happened?'

Kate walked into his arms and lay the side of her face that didn't hurt, against his chest. 'You should see the other guy.'

'I'm fairly certain I can see the imprint of his fist right now.'

'More than likely.'

He kissed the top of her head, letting a few seconds pass. 'Is there anything you need? Something to eat? An ice-pack? Alcohol?'

Alcohol. That would sound damn good if she was certain she could have it and not throw it back up. Getting kicked in the stomach was a bitch. 'No thanks. To all of it.' She tugged on his shirt. 'I just want bed. And you. Where are you in your draft?'

He squinted in thought. 'About a few paragraphs away from finishing a chapter.'

She patted his chest. 'Finish it. And then join me.'

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 _Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed it, please considering leaving a review etc. I'll try to update at least once a week, more likely twice a week! :)_


	2. Chapter 2

_Author's note: Thank you all for all the views, reviews, follows and favorites - all of them are truly appreciated and cherished!_

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If he said that he was happy with how he had finished that chapter, then he would be lying. But fiddling around with, editing and, no doubt, completely re-writing those last few paragraphs of this draft's penultimate chapter would be tomorrow's problem. He had been writing all day and, most importantly, he had a beautiful woman in a fair bit of pain, waiting for him in his bedroom. Some things took, and would always take, precedence.

Rick did his usual routine of saving three copies of his work – on his laptop, on a USB and on an external hard drive – before powering his MacBook down for the night. He grabbed the three coffee cups dotted around his office and deposited them in the kitchen sink before heading to the bedroom he now called _theirs_. Yet by the time it took for him to write those hundred or so words, back-up his precious manuscript and do a quick tidy-up – no more than fifteen minutes in total – Kate was out like a light, wearing a pale grey V-neck that she'd stolen from his dresser.

It would have been an adorable sight if it had not been for the disconcerting state that she had arrived home in.

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It became even more disconcerting for Rick a few hours later.

'See this hot mess right here? This is what you're marrying.' The strands of hair that had escaped his grasp when he had scooped her hair into a messy ponytail, were now stuck to her clammy forehead. Sweat had also turned patches of the pale grey V-neck to darker, almost black, patches.

'Don't worry. I'll make sure that our vows will include the traditional, 'in sickness and in health',' he said, his hand rubbing circles on her back as she took deep breaths. He had been kneeling down beside her at the toilet bowl for the past five minutes. 'What exactly happened to you at work?'

She took a deep breath in through her nose and out through her mouth. Then she answered. 'It wasn't that…I was feeling crappy pretty much since I _got_ to the precinct. I guess I wasn't on my game…and I got the crap beat out of me because of it.'

 _He had thought it was odd that she hadn't finished her coffee before she had set off to the 12_ _th_ _yesterday._ 'You should've stayed at home.'

'I thought it would pass…'

Sometimes she was too tough-willed for her own good. 'You think it's passed for now?'

She gave a small nod. 'Think so.'

Rick helped her back to her feet. 'It's probably best to get that shirt off and into something, uh well, dryer.' Hands on the hem of her shirt, he slowly and gently pulled it up and over her head. For the first time ever, the sight of her bare breasts and toned torso didn't get his heart racing. Welts were already turning into purpling bruises which were marring Kate's natural beauty. The right side of her ribs appeared to have bared the brunt of the assault. 'Oh Kate...'

Like she had earlier, she fell into his arms. Yet this time his hold was much looser as he was absolutely terrified that he might hurt her.

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The ferociousness of the sickness that had gripped her had quelled steadily throughout the morning and the afternoon. It was early evening and he had made something light for her to eat on the couch, where she had spent most of the day in front of the TV watching old episodes of _Temptation Lane_ that he had found online.

There was a knock at the door. 'I'll get it,' Rick smiled.

Kate smiled too. 'Babe, I had absolutely no intention of getting it anyway.'

He laughed, crossing the living room to answer it.

Kevin Ryan didn't even bother with a hello. 'Don't get too carried away. We're not here to relieve you of your duties.'

Javier Esposito's face was serious. His tone was as well. 'Been there, done that. Sick Beckett is a no-go. Not again. You couldn't pay me.'

'You are aware that she's over on that couch, right? She can hear you.'

Ryan glared at Esposito. Esposito glared at Ryan. Then they both turned to Rick and glared at him, as if it were his fault. 'You could've told us, bro.'

'She's sitting having soup. I wasn't aware that was groundbreaking news,' Castle said, taking a step back and letting the two detectives into the loft. He closed the door and followed them over to the couch where a sick detective was, indeed, sitting cradling a bowl of soup in her hands. 'Told you. You heard them, didn't you?'

'Mm hmm.'

It was always fun when he wasn't the one Kate was irked at. 'Every single word?'

'Every. Single. Word.'

 _Always so fun_. 'And you were left in no uncertain terms that they were talking about you?'

Esposito's fist connected with Rick's bicep. 'Bro. You mind not throwing us under the bus?'

'Oh, you guys threw yourselves under the bus. I'm just jumping in the driver's seat and putting that baby into reverse. And then in drive. And then in reverse again.' He was already bracing himself for another fist.

Thankfully, not for the first time, his wife saved his ass. 'It's alright, guys. I know I'm not the best patient in the world. Therefore, you must have a reason for coming here and not keeping your distance, correct?'

'Correct,' Ryan said, stepping forward with a manila folder. 'Your statement for the Kip incident from yesterday. You printed your name but forgot to sign it.'

Kate accepted the folder, flipped to the last page. 'I did? God, I must've been more out of it than I thought. Pen?'

Ryan passed her one. 'There were also a few letters sitting in your tray. Castle led us to believe that you were knocking on death's door and one of them looks pretty urgent so we thought we'd get it to you ASAP, just in case.'

They exchanged the folder and letters. 'I'm not on death's door. Just sick.'

'She threw up basically everything she's ever ate last night,' Castle elaborated, earning himself a glare. 'What? You were like a fountain.'

'Castle,' she hissed, prompting a snigger from Ryan and Esposito. 'Ryan, Espo. Thanks for coming by. I'll see you tomorrow. Maybe.'

The two detectives exchanged goodbyes with Kate before Rick showed them out. By the time he had returned to the couch and plopped himself down beside her, she was already reading one of the letters, a grimace on her face. 'Important?'

' _Inconvenient_.' She handed him a letter that was emblazoned with NYPD insignia. 'It's from the medical division. They want me in for a check-up. It's standard but you can guess how much fun it is when you had your chest cracked open a few years ago.'

'When is it?'

'Monday.'

 _Today was Thursday_. 'That's…short notice.'

She shrugged, the blanket that she had wrapped around herself slipping ever so slightly as she did. 'I guess. That's not the problem, though.'

'What is the problem?'

Kate hesitated then, 'You promise not to laugh?'

'As long as you promise not to tell a joke, then yes.'

There was another moment of hesitation as she fumbled with the blanket, pulling it back over her shoulders, gripping it so tightly her knuckles whitened. 'I hate needles, Rick. And honestly, the thought of them poking around for a vein to draw blood is making me sicker than I felt last night.'

'You're scared of needles?'

'Terrified. And, believe me, the irony is not lost on me. Tough cop who's scared of needles? Yeah, I know how ridiculous that sounds.'

'We're all scared of something. I mean, for me its curses-.'

'Spiders, ghosts, losing your hair…we could go on.'

He arched a brow. 'See? We're all scared of _something_.' The lightness of their conversation prevented him from revealing what his biggest fear was. _Losing her_. 'And it's fine to be scared of something. Let's be honest…very few people like the prospect of a sharp piece of metal piercing a vein-.' He stopped himself from going too far. 'What I mean is…its normal.'

She nestled into his side. 'Thanks babe.'

' _Always_.'


End file.
